Survival of the Fittest – Applies to Social Media Platforms Too.

In an atmosphere of oft-ignored advertising, Facebook needed to adapt. And that’s exactly what they did with the acquisition of Instagram.

Instagram is popular with so many varied demographics that, in this digital/social age, it’s not a surprising move by Facebook to stay relevant in the social game, and even better for them, in the advertising game.

So, bear with me here. This is a great story. Or, at the very least, rather interesting. I’m no spring chicken but have quickly found (in my uber-scientific survey of five or six people) that I and others actually pay attention to the advertisements on Instagram. The data jockeys have really got this targeting sh*t dialed in. Such language, you say? Well, that’s actually, sort of, the point. Here’s the thing…

An ad popped up (scrolled by) in my Insta-feed (just might have made up a word there) for “Använda. A Great F*cking Bag!” Two things jumped out at me. How did they know that I was thinking about a new bag or backpack and, that is some saucy copy. Presumptive, even. In other words, they nailed it. Me want.

My own writing should be so bold! I clicked the Instagram link (Insta-clicked, if you will) and landed on their IndieGogo/Kickstarter campaign page to fund, produce and ship what looked to be, a great f*cking bag. See, it’s contagious.

First off, I was super impressed by the bag, its style, its features and how it would line up with my desire to adopt the hipster lifestyle and look (I really should have kept the ‘mountain’ beard I grew a few weeks back). Moreover, I was struck by the frank (and rather course) language and how it stood apart from the copy you might normally come across, whether it be a new, cool backpack, a bag of high end, hand-picked coffee beans out of Costa Rica, or a software service designed to reach millions of IT users to optimize, leverage and synergize… whatever…

You bet your ass I ordered one. But then began the wait. First off, this isn’t Amazon and by the time I clicked Purchase, got up, grabbed more coffee and returned, would find the bag being dropped off by a sprinting Prime Delivery driver. No immediate, ahem, gratification here.

As of this writing, I’m still waiting but really don’t mind. The folks at Använda send regular updates on their progress and try to make everyone understand that they’re still dialing in their process and operation. Cool. I can get behind that. Hell, they even decided to get lippy on Facebook, of all places, with an impatient customer (maybe a prospect):

So, what’s the f*cking point? I thought you’d never ask. To be fair, since this is a one-way blog forum, I really didn’t give you the opportunity to ask.

The point is, to be effective, especially on social platforms where advertising can often spark a jaded response, it doesn’t hurt to be genuine, even if it means you might offend a few people. Använda did this quite well, via an ad on Instagram. They drew me and many others in, and I anxiously await my new, cool f*cking bag.

For you, some suggestions or, as they say in some corporate circles – learnings: Step 1: Be f*cking direct. Step 2: Stay f*cking engaged with email follow up. Step 3: Stay f*cking consistent on the branding from your website to Instagram to email to the product or service itself. Step 4: Contact us at A10 Partners and we’ll help you with all of that f*cking sh*t.